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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23114065">Ben Burlington</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maraviri/pseuds/Maraviri'>Maraviri</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Rise of the Guardians (2012)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 16:07:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,974</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23114065</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maraviri/pseuds/Maraviri</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>This is based on chapters 147 and 148 of Miles to Go Before I Sleep.<br/>I couldn't bear Ben not getting his answers, so ... here we go</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>23</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Ben Burlington</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/MugetsuPipefox/gifts">MugetsuPipefox</a>.</li>


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/2678567">Miles to Go Before I Sleep</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/MugetsuPipefox/pseuds/MugetsuPipefox">MugetsuPipefox</a>.
        </li>

    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>You really have to read Miles to Go Before I Sleep if you haven't read it ... It's great !!!<br/>Any mistakes in writing please tell me</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>
  <span>It had been almost a decade since Ben Burlington had left Burgues with more questions than answers. He insisted to his brother for a couple of months to return and find out what was happening there but after an unpleasant fight he stopped insisting. It is not that he will simply erase it from his mind, he still saw the recording material when he had free time between research and research, he was still searching myths and legends for some answer to what exactly Jackson Overland was.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He was currently with the entire team in Massachusetts investigating a house allegedly besieged by ghosts, and he was on his way to one of the local libraries to gather more information when someone came across. His handheld camera fell to the floor with the old person's old book.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>- There's sorry, I didn't see you - the other person began to apologize as he picked up the book and the camera to pass it to Ben - hey, you're Ben Burlington, nice to see you again - Ben looked up, right in front of him was Jaime Bennet, the same boy from so many years ago, who had all the answers they had is all chasing. Eyelid a couple of times and he accepted the hand Jaime offered him and got up.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>— Jaime, right? —</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-—Wow, I can't believe you still remember my name — Jaime said surprised, while handing him to the camera. — I hope it is not damaged by the fall —</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ben started checking the bed to make sure it wasn't broken while answering — it's hard to forget someone who leaves you with more questions than answers, which have been chasing you, for almost a decade—</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jaime laughed with real joy and replied — well if you want answers I could give you, but only you. It's not something you can tell the world, it could cause some chaos and nobody wants that, right?— He put his hand behind his back and when he took it out a simple business card was between his fingers, black and white in the center said </span>
  <b>J.B. BELIEVE TO SEE</b>
  <span> followed by a series of numbers. Ben took it with the hand that was not holding the camera.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-—Think about it, call me if in the end you decide to remain silent, I just warn you this is not easy to understand information. You need to have an open mind and be willing to change your world completely, it is not something new, I assure you that you had already heard about this, but now you are too old to remember everything—</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span> With that last sentence he turned around and started walking towards a small alley, Ben blinked a few times trying to make sense of the young man's words, blinked a little faster and then ran out to reach the boy, when he gave back in the alley that had seen Bennet enter he found it empty, it was as if no one had entered it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He put the card to his face and saw it in backlight, there, almost invisible was the pattern of delicate snowflakes, Ben could almost swear that every time he saw a snowflake on the card was different, almost as if they changed when I stopped seeing them. He put the card in his wallet and continued on his way to the library, he had a lot to think about.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was about 6 pm two days later when Ben decided to call. The phone rang two, three, four times before going to mailbox </span>
  <em>
    <span>* beep * this is the answer of Jaime Bennet, if you have this number you know where to find me and if not, look for it on the cards, * beep *.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Ben looked down at the card again, he had turned it around and around, saying nothing but the initials and the strange phrase, as he turned around looking for the place where he could find Bennet, and as if by magic the on the back of the card, instead of being blank as many times before there was a delicate blank writing that said </span>
  <b>"library and bookstore of the strange and paranormal 'Boolibrary' hours from 4pm to 12am."</b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ben dropped the card, that had not been there before, carefully picked up the card and kept it, looked at the clock, was undoubtedly open, took the car keys and turned to see his brother who was editing some of the material to the program.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>—He returned in a while, I go to the library—</span>
</p><p>
  <span>— Yes, all right, bring a coffee when you return,— replied his brother without looking up from the computer. Ben attended and left, things were getting more and more strange over time, and he hadn't even talked to Jaime in person.</span>
</p><p>
  <span> He drove in silence with the help of GPS for about 20 min until he reached a small bookshop carefully hidden between two houses in the city center. He parked the car and got out of it, the air felt strangely charged with static as if the sky was preparing for a thunderstorm, but the sky was perfectly clear, the sun is going down. Ben realized that at most he had half an hour of daylight left, he adjusted his jacket and entered the library.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>At the entrance a young gothic girl with bright purple hair read a black book, without paying attention to who had entered. Ben walked towards her and coughed a little to get her attention.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>—Hey excuse me, is Jaime Bennet here? I'm looking for him — the girl looked up slightly from her book and blinked slowly as if it were a cat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>—At the bottom, between the shelves,—  she replied monotonously and returned to her book, Ben just thanked her and walked quickly to the bottom of the place. From floor to ceiling the walls had endless books along with shelves also full of them, among some shelves there were wooden tables to read the books illuminated with dim chandeliers and chandeliers, the dark wooden floor certainly fit everything The mystical air of the place. A few people were at the tables reading quietly or writing in a notebook, none turned to see him. Ben could swear that for a moment the freckles of one of the girls that passed looked like scales, but a more nearby look showed that they were just normal freckles. Ben swallowed, there was certainly something strange here.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After a few more steps in the distance I hear a person sing</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Salagadoola Mechicka Boola</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Put them together and what have you got?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Salagadoola Mechicka Boola</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It'll do magic, believe it or not</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ben paused for a moment, it wasn't the kind of song you expected someone to sing in such a place, but he certainly recognized the voice. After a couple of seconds he walked decidedly to the voice to effectively find Jaime Bennet with a stack of books in his hands as he arranged them in their respective places. All without stopping singing that song.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>—Jaime?— Ben asked quietly, Jaime quickly put the last books in place and turned to see Ben in the face. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>— Ben Burlington, nice. I knew you would be here sooner or later! It is a pleasure to see you again, I suppose you have many questions, right? Come on let's go to the back.— Everything was said with a smile on his face, leaving Ben blinking a little puzzled. Jaime turned around and quickly started walking towards the back. After walking through a cellar, Jaime stopped in front of a door and took a sky blue scarf out of his jacket.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>— What I am going to tell you is difficult for the majority to understand, I believe that you do not belong to the majority. Remember to have an open mind and believe in everything you tell and I tell you ... I know that having confidence in someone you have only met a few times is difficult, but if you pass this test I will tell you exactly what and who exactly is Jackson Overland—  Ben could only hear in Jaime's voice absolute certainty, and although all of this seemed like the right way to end up without any of his belongings and thrown under a bridge somewhere he decided to believe what the boy in front of him was saying and blindfold with the light blue scarf.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After Jaime made sure he didn't see anything, he heard a door open, the air in his lungs was purer than anything you could breathe in a city, the grass under his feet was the most spongy and perfect for walking that she had never felt, the sun on her skin felt like a perfect sunny day at noon, the breeze blows away the heat, but it wasn't cold. It was nothing like what I had felt before and it certainly shouldn't be possible in a city that far north in the United States in the fall.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His head screamed that it couldn't be real, that all he felt was a lie, there was no natural way for those sensory stimuli to be real, the floating odor soon reached his nose, along with the singing of the birds. His mind kept screaming that everything must be false, but ... In the depths of his soul, of his heart, that part that had prevented him from being an accountant as his mother wanted and dedicating himself to hunting ghosts told him to be 100% real and, if There was no scientific explanation for that, the answer must be in the supernatural. He remembered Jaime's words, it is not something new, as a child he believed in fairies and tales with magic, wizards, witches. In that in hidden places of the world there were dragons and other creatures, whose big foot was in the forests near which he lived. Suddenly he realized that the birds were not the only thing he heard around him, there was a set of small high voices, that the air was ozone-laden but no storm was felt nearby, he let out a small sigh the moment he His memories returned to the moments where he played with his brother in the forest in search of trolls and other creatures, keeping a Tooth under the pillow and waking up with a coin, the inexplicable gifts on the Christmas tree, the collection of Easter eggs and many other things he thought he had forgotten.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Carefully he removed the blindfold, blinking a bit to accustom his eyes to the surrounding midday sun. In front of him was Jaime with a golden box in his hands and a big smile on his face. But undoubtedly what caught Ben's attention were all the creatures around him, pixies and fairies of all colors and sizes flew around him, plants that he had never seen before and in the middle of everything a small one. That white with two chairs and a floating boiling tetra ready to serve.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>—I think you're ready for me to tell you a story— Jaime's voice was happy and full of wonder, Ben could only attend and accompany Jaime to the table without taking his eyes off the wonders that surrounded him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>—This story began a long time ago…</span>
</p><p>
  <span> Ben soon found himself wrapped in Jaime's voice and let himself go.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ben opened the door of the hotel room and entered with a silly smile on his face and his eyes filled with more wonders than he had seen before, he left the keys on the table and lay down on the bed thinking about everything that had happened. discovered and like, if one day he said something he would most likely be branded as crazy.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>—How nice that you're back— his brother's voice broke Ben's dreamy harmony </span>
</p><p>
  <span>—and my coffee?—</span>
</p><p>
  <span>—I forgot completely—</span>
</p><p> </p>
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